Kathi S Barton - [Aaron's Kiss 04] by Karen Fuller Page B

kitchen, they stared in open-mouthed amazement at everything. There were sugary confections everywhere, different colored icings with flowers and animals standing on them, cupcakes by the yards, and hundreds upon hundreds of cookies cooling on racks. Standing in the corner on a rolling cart was a huge wedding cake with seven tiers and a waterfall made from real silk that Sam told them was a piece of the material used in the bridesmaids’ dresses.
    “They’re supposed to come to get it in the morning. I have to put their names on it here, but first I have to put the finishing touches on it.” She pointed to the area just below the bride and groom. “It needs to have a few more of the non-perils put inside the roses to make them shiny. There is also the bridal cake to finish. It’s for the two of them to shove in each other’s faces.”
    “How long have you been doing this?” Shade asked as she looked at the table filled with cakes of all sizes. She was delighted by the little six-inch cakes that had been ordered for a little girl and her ten friends to enjoy, each with a different theme of a Disney princess. Sam just thought they were goofy.
    “My mom taught me to bake, and to enjoy it. She and I lived in the upstairs of this place until...until later. She was the pastry chef, decorating the cakes and stuff. She would let me play with her tubes of colors. Once I got pretty good at them, she’d let me make the roses first, then I moved up to other flowers and stems.” Sam put the kids, Mac, Lizzy, and Shade’s three kids Shamus, Brent, and Caitlynne, on a stool each and handed them a tube of hard icing. The icing really was not hard, but it got hard enough to withstand being stuck on a cake after a few minutes and transported home. Giving them each a sheet of wax paper, Sam gave them the basics of making a flower, starting with a simple daisy and then a quick rosette.

    Sara and Shade wanted some of the goodies in the worst way. Sam could practically see the drool on their chins. Shade had her eye on the Philly cheese Danish that had been smothered in cherries jubilee. It was a feather pastry made from layer upon layer of thin dough then after it rested, filled with cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar and vanilla. When it was finished baking, Sam had drizzled warm caramel over the top and sprinkled with chopped walnuts. If the customer wanted it to go, the cherries served in a little container on the side were added just before eating.
    Sara was eyeing the Mad Mother Maker. It was a large brownie that had been baked in a large cupcake tin. When cooled, hollowed out and filled with thick dark chocolate fudge and candied cherries, there was a dollop of dark chocolate melted and shaped into a heart that sat dead center, and as if that was not enough, rich dark chocolate candy had been melted and streamed all over the top and dripped down the sides to form a puddle of a hard shell under it.
    “You know if you want it, all you have to do is ask. I don’t make them for show.” Sam simply reached into the show trays that had been filled to pop under the glass counter in the morning and handed each of them the treat.
    Shade didn’t even hesitate when Sam told her that she could have more of the cherries to pour over hers. She just opened the fridge door Sam had pointed to and scooped up another scoop of the beautiful fruit.
    When each of the kids had finished and cleaned up their mess, Sam took the best attempt of the roses they had been trying to make and stuck them to the wedding cake.
    When Sara started to protest about the bride finding those little flowers that looked nothing like Sam’s, she pointed out that the bride would do good to notice anything about the cake, much less five little flowers among several hundred others.
    They never got to talk about what they had come there to discuss, but that was all right, Sam supposed. They had made up and become friends of a sort. The kids were very happy with their